Faravahar: the main symbol of Zoroastrianism (the ancient religion of Iran)

We spent 11 days in Iran during November 2006, and had a fantastic time discovering this amazing country and people.

This article describes how we went about organising our trip, what we learnt along the way and will hopefully help you plan your trip to Iran (or if you are not planning a trip, then maybe provide inspiration for a future trip!).

Planning a trip to Iran is really not that difficult, however do be prepared to spend some time obtaining a visa, and be aware that credit cards are not widely accepted. More details on these issues later.

This is a question we were asked almost everytime we told somebody that we were planning a trip to Iran. Many people looked at us as if we were mad, others expressed concern that we may be kidnapped (or worse), and some were simply interested to know why we chose to go there.

We had many reasons for visting Iran.

Obviously we were keen to visit the ancient sites of the Persian Empire such as Persepolis and the beautiful city of Isfahan. But we also wanted to see for ourselves a country and people which is often portrayed by the Western media in a negative light.

We had heard very positive reports from people who had visited Iran, in particular the friendly and hospitable Iranian people.

We used two guide books, as well as several websites to help us plan our trip.

In our opinion the best guidebook is the highly recommended Bradt Iran Guide by Patricia Baker which contains a wealth of historical and contextual information.

We also used the Lonely Planet Guide to Iran, which is useful for the practical side of a trip. Unfortunately Rough Guides does not produce a guide to Iran.

Getting There >